L.A. woman mourns Nelson Mandela: Her father died in struggle against apartheid

Former South African President Nelson Mandela reacts at the Mandela foundation, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday June 2, 2009, during a meeting with a group of American and South African students as part of a series of activities leading to Mandela Day on July 18th. (AP Photo/Pool-Theana Calitz-Bilt, Pool)

Lynn Harris Ballen left South Africa more than 30 years ago, but the country and the struggles of its past still run in her veins.

It was while she searched for her biological father, John Harris, that Ballen discovered her own personal link to Nelson Mandela.

“My biological father was an anti apartheid activist in the early 60s,” said Ballen, a writer who also produces the program Feminist Magazine on KPFK Pacifica 90.7 FM radio.

“He was involved in an activist group that was bombing non civilian targets, and he ended up being executed by the apartheid government,” Ballen said. “He was the only white man executed as a political prisoner.”

This was in 1965 when Mandela was a prisoner on Robben Island. When Mandela had heard Harris had been hanged in the gallows, he called for a moment of silence among the political prisoners.

“My first reaction was sorrow,” Ballen said of hearing of Mandela’s death.

Harris, who lives in Los Angeles, said she also thought of the younger generations who did not live through the struggles of her homeland.

She called Mandela a complicated man who was part of a struggle in which activists believed they had no choice but to take up arms.

Ballen returned home in 2011, when a memorial ceremony was held for the families of the 134 political prisoners who had been executed during apartheid.

Mandela’s death should “be a moment for the country to stop and take stock and revive some of the values that Mandela and the founders of the ANC represented,” she said. “So much of that has been forgotten and lost. Mandela was so unique in that he was an exemplary statesmen. South Africa was so blessed to have him walk them through the process (of democracy).”